[Luke – 13 years]

"Hey, Tyler!" I greet him as I leave school, then stop my hoverboard and give him a kiss. "How'd the hunts go?"

"Not bad," he says. "Dad and I caught some pretty big stuff this time!"

"Big isn't always better!"

"These ones were worth quite a lot," he tells me. "Some bears with fire magics in them. Quite a lot of it, actually – Dad and I ended up having to work together to take down just one, and that pushed us hard. But we caught three! And each one sells for about a hundred grand, too."

"Damn," Seph mutters under his breath.

"For bears?" Cyrus asks. "There's only one I can think of close to that for your mana level, but I don't think it's worth quite that much. By quite a lot."

"Probably the same," Tyler tells him. "They had crystal horns on their heads, so that definitely contributed as they turned out to contain mana, when we turned them in. Never come across that before."

"Ooooh, one of those types," I say. "Yeah, that's like the bear I fought at the Rift Incident. They have additional mana stored in crystals on their heads, making them able to do a lot more than their strength seems to suggest possible. You got hurt?"

"A little," Tyler nods. "But we already used some healing salve and saw a healer, so we're fine. No marks! A pretty good healer's moved into the area recently, so we were able to get top-quality treatment for what was left. Then Dad and I went to-"

My phone and Cyrus's both start ringing, and we look at each other.

"That's not good," I say as I pull mine out. "Aaaand it's from the military."

"Yeah," Cyrus says as he checks his. "Well, then."

"Lucas Gatewood," I answer the phone, while Cyrus answers his.

"Hello, Luke," the general says. "A report just came across my desk. A pair of magic beast hunters came across a high-grade beast during their most recent hunting trip," I smile and point at Tyler, who just gives me a confused look. "And it warrants investigating. A beast which would ordinarily have around 300-600 mana, but which had mana crystal horns. Sunpaw bears.

"Those aren't normal there," he says. "And while it's a decent distance from civilization, we're sending a task force out to investigate. It's possible a Rift opened up there and let some beasts out, and we want some extra firepower just in case there's something extra strong. A few of your classmates are being contacted right now, and your parents have already granted permission for you to go."

"If it's under a thousand," I say. "Then wouldn't some of the stronger mages in the area, like the Sunfangs, be enough?"

Cyrus is obviously being contacted, based on what I'm hearing from his side of the conversation. Sending in mages five times as powerful as the report is standard.

"Yes," he answers. "But since this is in true wilderness, there's no telling what might happen. The sunpaw bears aren't the only anomaly we've heard reports of in that area, so we want some very high-power mages there, just in case."

"Who all will be there?" I ask.

"The region's strongest mages," he answers. "We're requesting help from your family and the Sungfangs, as well as from the Cloudtails."

That really is the region's most powerful mages, exempting the Kings. The Cloudtails are like the Sunfangs – each member is at around 2,000-3,000 mana in capacity. Our three families are the only ones at that point here, as far as I'm aware.

"And we've also requested permission from Adrian King to contact Xander," the General adds. "In case of something with a lot of extra oomph to it. You'll be going far enough out that there might be wyverns or wild dragons, or something equally powerful."

There must be more to it than that. They have no issue sending crews out when there's something that powerful around. If they're calling on all three of the area's most powerful families, then they're going to be sending in the countermeasures for such strong beasts.

We have them, but they're expensive to set up so they're rarely used. Only at locations like the base at the demon islands are they constantly set up. And they're not good for taking out large groups, only individuals. Why? Because you have to lure the target (or targets) into a specific spot.

If they're wanting to call in someone as powerful as Xander for a military operation…

"What has you unnerved?" I ask, causing my friends to all give me curious looks, Cyrus included.

"Everyone who's hunting in that region for the past two weeks," the general says. "Has brought back something with crystallized mana horns. Most of them are prey beasts, which means there's likely something feeding on them as well. And that means something strong. In an area like that, that means there could be something rather strong. We want to make absolutely sure we can handle everything. Requesting assistance from Xander King is just in case."

"Alright," I say. "I'll be there; can teleport Cyrus and me so no need for us to get picked up."

"Thank you," he says. "And Adrian King is returning my call, so I'll go."

He hangs up, and I look at my friends.

"Military's requested assistance for a situation," I look at Tyler. "Seems that bear and some other things picked up in that area the past two weeks have triggered an alarm. They suspect a powerful Rift opened up at some point after the seal wore off, so they're calling in big guns. Why don't you all head to my place and wait? My parents won't have an issue with that, and we'll likely be back in three or four hours, so we'll still be able to hang out overnight."

The plan was for a sleepover between the five of us. Parker seems a little uncomfortable at the suggestion of hanging out with just Seph and Tyler, but he'll be fine.

"Seriously?" Tyler asks.

"Yeah," I answer, then give him another kiss. "See you tonight."

"See ya," he gives me a hug. "Don't get hurt."

The three of them head off, and I look at Cyrus.

"Ready?" I pick up my hoverboard, and he does the same.

"Yeah," he answers, and I put a hand on his shoulder before teleporting us straight to outside the base.

Thirty minutes later, we and our families are on a military jet soaring over the wilderness, a lot of soldiers accompanying us as well. The Cloudtails have kids in our grade, too, triplets. Two boys, one girl. Their bloodline is mainly water with some air, though they're not that great at lightning magic.

Though as an ancient mage bloodline with a lot of training, they're quite skilled with the power they hold.

With all of the magical people living in the Greater Dragon Falls Area, our knowledge of what the actual power levels for it are might be off. Many of them seem to hide their real strength from others. Jake, Connor's boyfriend, is an example of that. He's a pure dragon, but everyone thought he was just a normal kid. His mana capacity must be around a million or so.

Then again, asking him to join in on this would probably get a firm "no". If the military's known about dragons for a long time, then they definitely knew about Jake and his family. They've never helped out, as far as I'm aware.

"What was the result of requesting assistance from the Kings?" I ask my parents. "They're not here, but that doesn't mean anything. Not with Xander able to teleport long distances the way some kids eat candy. Nothing was said about him in the briefing, and it won't take long for us to get to the location in this jet."

With how fast it is, the flight itself shouldn't take more than maybe ten minutes from departure. That's when accounting for potentially needing to deal with flying beasts coming at us.

"All we were told," Mom tells me. "Is that Adrian King said that he'd allow us to handle the lesser stuff."

"Allow us?" Bridget asks.

"That wording suggests he already knew about the situation," Dad tells her. "And was taking care of it. There must be something strong there and look at the monitor."

We all look at the monitors in this section of the jet. It's showing us everything around us, so that we can get a view of the area as we fly over. They have drones that are basically mini-jets flying ahead to help us scout out the area.

On one of the monitors showing something south and to the west a little – not far to the right of where we're flying to – there's a massive Rift. It's easily five hundred feet tall. Maybe more. That's my estimations for it, and it does seem to stretch down to the ground despite seeming to hover above it. A sphere that big will only have a very small section of it near the ground.

Nothing is coming out of the Rift right now, but that is absolutely terrifying.

"Too far away from our sensors to get picked up," Dad says. "Even with Xander's new design for them."

"Has that been there for a week?" I ask. "Or is that new?"

"It wasn't in the briefings," Mom says. "But it's also further out from where we're going. Traveling by foot and car, no one would have seen it. The trees would be in the way."

"I've heard of Rifts that large," one of the soldiers accompanying us says. "They're fairly rare, but their size doesn't necessarily indicate a high strength. One about twenty years ago was only letting out beasts about a strong as a regular person. Lasted about an hour before it disappeared. This one could be older, though – some of the stronger ones were known to last a week or two, and they were always out in the wilderness."

The Rift suddenly becomes enveloped by the same cloud of magic Xander used when closing one on stream before. Then, the whole thing vanishes.

"Looks like Adrian King just took care of it," Mom says. "And we're about to our location. Everyone! Ready for jump!"

Less than a minute later, we're all jumping out of the back of the jet. No parachutes necessary, not even for the MSF soldiers. They have training to ensure they can land safely – there's no telling if a beast would attack the parachutes out here. As for the rest of us? Well, we all have 2,000+ mana. We have ways to prevent damage when we fall, too.

I lightning-charge my body so that it's more like a flight for me, while the others cast their own spells. Our descents all slow, and Dad issues an order for us to half our descents entirely. Now, there are about a hundred soldiers and civilian assistants floating about three hundred feet in the air.

"See those beasts?" Mom uses magic so everyone can hear. "Those larger ones with the crystal horns? Luke will handle those. Spread out and avoid his lightning!"

Winter makes visibility easy, the forest having lost its canopy more than a month ago. There's too high of a beast population here, it's like facing a small army of them. Bears and wolves, boars and bulls, mountain lions and leopards, and so much more. Some must have come from the massive Rift, but others are probably mutated from normal animals.

Just what the heck happened here? There's no way Tyler and his dad wouldn't have noticed the effects of this even if they were a hundred miles away. That means this is a new situation.

Well, no matter.

"Don't just spread out," Dad adds. "Form into the teams as assigned. Soldiers, you let us handle the stronger ones. Your job is to handle any weaker beasts, so that we can focus our mana and efforts on the bigger ones. Rather than slaying as we spread out, we'll spread out, then drive them in to Luke. He'll handle anything which gets close."

"And Luke?" Mom says. "Conserve your mana. Don't go all out. There are quite a few of these, and we might need to move a few times."

"Got it," I say.

The others all spread out and once they're a safe distance away, I flick two fingers towards the ground. A thick bolt of lightning strikes down from the sky and when it does, a lightning titan rises up.

Nearby monsters turn to face the fifty-foot-tall construct of lightning, then charge toward it. There will be plenty which haven't seen it, but those will be either slain or driven over to me. I do want to know how things will be handled in other parts, since that wasn't in our briefing.

They've probably already called in task forces from other parts of the country as well. Our group is no doubt just one of several.

Then again, it's also possible that Adrian King already drove everything over here for us to handle. That would explain the high concentration of magic beasts and monsters.

Ones which are really insistent on attacking a giant me made out of lightning. Their attacks draw some of its lightning and end up obliterated. Anything which strikes it is obliterated. I direct it a little, and the lightning golem walks around, simply destroying everything in its path from the sheer volume of power it holds.

Stolen novel; please report.

Despite nothing here really being a challenge – they probably are all weaker than my parents and the other high-tier mages I came with – this is pretty fun.

Bow before me, mortals!

That was bad.

Kneel, or face the wrath of the lightning god!

I really shouldn't have been left alone, but this is just a lot of fun. And do those bears really think they can wrestle something easily five times their size? Idiots.

Especially since they don't stop even after getting shocked and burned from the golem. It's amusing to watch, though, so maybe I'll let them do it a little bit longer before wiping the lot of them out… if they're still alive, that is.

[Xander – 13 years] → begins early in Luke's PoV.

I already switched to sleepwear and wolfkin form and sent Sig a pre-nap picture, and now Grandpa Adrian is at my bedroom door, so I had to pull on pants and a long-sleeve. Answering the door in shorts and a short-sleeve wouldn't be enough to make me feel comfortable right now. Not when my attempt at taking a nap got disturbed right before I fell asleep.

"I was about to take my nap," I tell Grandpa Adrian.

"I know," he says. "That's why I showed up now rather than later. It's come to my attention that there's a particularly powerful beast several hundred miles south of the range of the Rift sensors you designed. They're from a mixture of Rifts and magic-induced mutations caused by said powerful beast.

"At the moment," he says. "I have an avatar driving all of the monsters and beasts which need taking care of except that one to where the military is sending a specialized force. They just became aware of it at the same time I did and are forming a force of some stronger mages, though they don't know about the bigger beast. Because it's deep in true wilderness, they wanted to know if I'm okay with them contacting you to act as backup, in case something particularly powerful shows up, like a wyvern or a dragon."

"I wanna take a nap."

"An avatar of mine will handle anything like that," he tells me. "What I wanted to know is if you wanted to come and see this other beast, the one behind the problems. It's a different type from any you've seen anything about, and there are no records of them in any society on Earth, human or otherwise. I generally become aware of them before other people do and deal with them. Well, and they're rather rare – this is the first one on Earth in over fifty years.

"My assumption was that you might be interested in seeing it," he tells me. "If you aren't, then I'll take care of it now. If you are, then we need to go soon. You'll understand why I don't want to let it continue roaming around any longer than necessary, once we encounter the creature and I explain some things about it."

Take a nap, or let my schedule be disrupted for a second time this week? But it's to see a rare beast that's causing problems and help take care of it. At least, I'm assuming Grandpa Adrian will allow me to assist in dealing with it.

"Ms. Johnson would need to give permission."

"She already has," he informs me. "I let her know I wanted to do this and she approved it."

Because she doesn't want to say no to him. Smart move. He'd probably force a yes even if she didn't, because this is a very rare educational opportunity and experience.

"Okay," I say. "Um… can I get changed first? I pulled this outfit one because I didn't want to answer the door in sleepwear, but it ain't hunting gear."

"Go ahead," a paper bag appears in his hands. "Wear this, though. You'll want something with at least 10,000 mana resistance."

There must be a lot of mana in the air where we're going.

"Okay."

I accept the bag and close the door, then change into the outfit. It looks like my regular hunting gear, but stronger. There aren't any hunting boots in here, but I have hunting boots already that powerful. Grandpa Adrian already delivered them to me recently.

They were made from the hide of a wyvern with mostly air magics, they're very comfortable, and they're superior to the hunting boots made from a bison. Because they're made from a wyvern's hide, the new ones have a mana rating well above 10,000.

Once I'm changed, I rejoin Grandpa Adrian and let Mom know we're leaving. Grandpa Adrian then teleports the two of us to our destination.

"Whoa," I look at the giant beast on the ground. "That's a big turtle."

She's over a hundred feet in width and has an absolutely ridiculous amount of mana. Way more than I do by several times. That's before factoring in the massive mana crystals growing out of her back. Though something is a little off…

"Her mana rating is lower than her mana?" I ask. "Is she like how I used to be?"

"No," Grandpa Adrian chuckles. "You've seen beasts with similar lengths as her before, but they were smaller in total volume. Her mana is more spread out, even if greater in quantity, so it hasn't strengthened her as much. That said, up until the size of an ancient dragon, the strengthening is usually the same, so a human and a dragon with the same mana capacities will have the same mana rating. But this lady? She's a bit different.

"She's in the titan class of beasts," he tells me. "A beast immense in comparison to normal ones of her kind. And she's young, too. Give her another two centuries, and she'll be around five hundred feet in width."

"Her mana rating shouldn't allow her weight, right?" I ask. "That's why she's got gravity magics, I think? But also enhancements. And it seems like they're being channeled through the crystals on her back?"

"Correct," Grandpa Adrian says. "And they can run indefinitely, as those crystals continuously produce mana as long as she's alive. More than it takes to sustain her. Fortunately, she's still slow from her weight and size despite the enhancements, so she moves slowly. But her presence leaks a lot of mana, as I'm sure you can see."

"Yeah," I nod. "This area is a lot more saturated with it than that area over there."

"I'll be removing it once we deal with this," he tells me. "To reset it back to what it should be right now, so that things don't accelerate too quickly. The extra beasts with high mana will all be dealt with as well, their remains removed. And there's another problem. You'll see her do it shortly."

"Okay."

About five seconds later, she opens her mouth and a blend of magics, including spatial, flows out. They travel forward and begin to form a massive gate. It looks like a Rift, but is clearly an unnatural one. I'd be able to tell that from its magics even if I didn't see her cast it.

"That's almost seven hundred feet wide…"

"I accessed the World Memory with another avatar," Grandpa Adrian tells me. "It seems she hijacked a Rift about three weeks ago and expanded to it allow herself through. She's not sapient, but she's smart enough to do that. Was curious about another world. Ever since then, she's been hijacking microrifts and other small Rifts, as well as trying to create her own. That's caused a large influx in creatures coming through, and her mana leakage is strengthening them."

"Is she trying to get back home?" I ask. "That's way too big for her. And there's no guarantee the Rift would take her there, even if she hijacked it to make it big enough for her."

"She's not," he says. "That one, she created entirely on her own. And her goal is to bring her momma here, based on my scan of her mind."

"But you put a seal over that gate," I say. "So almost nothing can come through it."

"Right," he says. "But the two of us are going to go through it."

"How come?"

"I'm going to show you a colossus-class beast," he tells me. "Then I'll kill it. We'll return after."

"Okay."

Grandpa Adrian and I fly toward the gate and enter through it. That's why he wanted me to wear more durable clothes – the gate's mana rating is a little less than 10,000, even if the beast which conjured it is much stronger. I don't need to spend 5,000,000 mana to open a gate to Mars, after all. The full amount of one's mana isn't necessary for stuff like this, not unless the distance is ridiculously far.

I still don't know why Grandpa Adrian teleported us to his original home world rather than simply open a gate there. A gate would have been cheaper for that distance.

The other world we enter into has a massive forest. As in, the trees are hundred of feet tall, their trunks dozens of feet thick. There's a lot of space between the trees, though some have fallen from the gate breaking them.

That's a badly-made gate for sure. It shouldn't have broken anything, or if so, not like that.

Rather than plain green leaves, the leaves here are blue and green. The ambient mana is rich here and full of nature magics. And not far ahead of us is a turtle similar to the one who opened the gate, but nearly five hundred feet across.

Her own mana capacity is easily ten times my own.

"And that's the momma," Grandpa Adrian says. "And it seems that she succeeded in making a Rift to her own world. If she hadn't, I would have taken us here directly. Whether or not her momma learned about Earth wasn't something I could tell. The moment she does, she'll want to come to it to make sure her daughter's safe."

"And that's bad."

"That's very bad," he says. "You saw what her daughter's presence has done in just three weeks, how it spiked the ambient mana. Feel how much mana this lady is leaking. Hers would do it much more rapidly. In addition, she'd want to change the landscape to suit her type, and that means creating lakes and rivers of immense size, rather than going to the ocean. You probably can't tell, but there's an immense lake not far northeast of here. And titans and colossi hate sapient beings. She'd eventually learn about society, then aim to destroy it."

In other words, she'd make major changes to the landscape of Earth, try to wipe out all people of all species, and then basically become its queen. That's… not very good.

"So it's better to kill her now than to not," I say.

"Correct," he gestures towards her, and the magics supporting her body suddenly stop.

They should still be running, but he's completely canceling them out. That causes her to crush under her own weight and within a few minutes, she's dead.

"Let her return to the world," he says. "Her mana will spread throughout and nourish it, and new life will grow."

"Ain't that dangerous?"

"Not for here," he says. "From what I'm seeing, it appears this world's balanced out, and colossi are common here. Her death is a normal part of the cycle. The flora is adapted to such high mana amounts regularly showing up. They draw it in and store it, using it up over the next several centuries, until the next influx."

"Oh," I look at one of the nearby trees. "So this is one of the worlds where we'd need a lot more time for me to fully learn about how the cycle works and why it's different from Earth's?"

"Correct," he chuckles. "Anyway, let's head back now."

"What about her husband?" I ask. "If she had one baby, then she has a mate, right? And maybe other kids?"

"No," Grandpa Adrian says. "I've checked as we talked. Her mate died around a century ago, and her daughter on Earth is the only one left which has hatched. This is very normal, but I checked just because this world's cycle seems to be reliant on the deaths of colossi. There's no risk of any coming to Earth for revenge, as none will know about it. It'll just be assumed they died normally."

If there's only one left, how would they continue to repopulate? I'll ask him later, I'm tired and if I start asking a lot of questions, it'll only delay my nap further.

"Oh," I say. "Okay."

We return to Earth, where the titan turtle is. She's no longer maintaining the gate – it'll keep running until it's out of mana, which might be several days.

"I want you to kill her in a specific way," Grandpa Adrian says.

"Me?" I ask. "But I ain't that powerful."

"Don't be intimidated by her size and capacity," he tells me. "This is a method the government uses when facing something particularly strong. It takes them a lot of effort and resources to set it up, but it's something you can do with your magic. You have no need to spend a lot of money and lure her into a trap for it."

"I ain't gonna like it, am I?"

"You do this," he says. "And I'll contact people I know to begin working on creating a cattle breed with a magic blend you like."

"What is it?" I try not to give in, but that's really tempting.

"Suffocate her."

"S-what? But that's torture!"

"And she'll end society if she's not ended," he says. "She won't feel much pain, anyway. And this is how the government handles wyverns which get too close to society, most of the time. They lure it into a zone they set up which has zero breathable air, and it suffocates. Due to its size and stupidity, it doesn't realize it's not able to breathe properly until it's already past the point where it can move well enough to escape. They tend to feel no pain from this. Once you kill her, we'll send her through the gate to decompose with her momma, then I'll close it and you can go home and take your nap."

I don't want to suffocate anything, but at the same time, Grandpa Adrian really seems to want me to do this. He's suggested it for hunting before, too. There has to be a reason for it, regardless of how awful it is.

The more I resist, the more times I'll get asked or suggested it.

"Alright," I sigh, then aim a hand at the beast.

There's no immediately-obvious effect from me preventing her from being able to breathe, but within a minute, she stops moving. Her body collapses, the enhancement and gravity magics fading away.

"And she felt no pain," Grandpa Adrian flicks a wrist, and she lifts up into the air a little.

"Hold on," I tell him.

"What?"

"Can I get some parts?" I ask. "Not big ones. Just… a trophy. Sig does trophies for his kills, he keeps skulls from first kills of a type or special ones or whatever. I dun want her skull, but maybe part of her shell?"

"You can harvest a few parts, if you'd like," he tells me. "But hurry up, okay? I want to get her through, the Rift taken care of, and the mana she's still leaking out here dealt with."

"Okay."

[Sig – 13 years]

Xander showed up at his normal time, but he looks sleepy and apparently hasn't taken a nap yet, so said he'll try to take one for only half an hour here. He's set up his blankets, pillows, and Mr. Leviathan, and is now changing to his sleepwear. This weekend's sleepover is occurring at my place again, rather than following the rotation like it should.

The dads prefer to rotate so that the burden isn't on any one parent/guardian every week, and it balances out the increase from bills as well. But my place is the best for it, and I promised Aunt Rachel to help cover the extra costs for the bills we'll use. That seems fair to me.

Since it's taking place at my place, that means Xander's setting up by my basement Christmas tree. Even if he's making sure he's at least two feet away from it, the rest of us know he's going to end up underneath it while napping.

"Oh, right," Xander looks at me after he finishes changing, his form shifting to wolfkin. "Sleepy brain made me forget. I made this for you."

A necklace forms in the air between us, a leather cord with a turtle charm about an inch in length hanging from it by its tail. A small metal bead sits to either side of the small ring attaching the charm to the necklace, and the clasp is made of the same metal. Knowing Xander, it's probably something like orichalcum rather than steel… though I did buy him a necklace made of the same stuff so it's fine.

What's curious about it is that the turtle carving looks to be made out of a turtle's shell, but it must've been a big turtle rather than a regular one, considering the thickness and shape. I don't think a regular turtle's shell would be able to make a turtle which doesn't look like it's an arch.

"What's this?"

"A necklace."

"No," I say as I accept it. "What's it made from?"

"Oh," he says. "Grandpa Adrian took me hunting after school. That's why I didn't have my nap yet. I killed a couple of wyverns and a massive turtle. Like, really big. Bigger than big. I was getting a piece of its shell for a trophy like you do with skulls, and thought that since you like turtles, I could make you a turtle necklace from a part of it. Grandpa Adrian said it was okay."

That's honestly really nice, and I wish I could've seen the mega turtle.

"You killed a giant turtle while killing wyverns?" Jake asks.

"Before killing wyverns," Xander yawns. "Now I'm gonna take my nap."

"Can I hug you?"

Chances are slim he'll say "yes" since he's not wearing full pants and a long-sleeve, but it's always worth asking.

"Um…" he thinks for a few moments. "Yeah."

"Okay!" I hug him. "Thanks for the necklace! I love it!"

I pull it on after we separate, then he lies down and pulls a blanket over him, Mr. Leviathan, and Trenton. He's asleep immediately after.

"It amazes me how he can fall asleep just like that," Sam says.

"That's a dreamsage thing," Jake tells him. "They can fall asleep at will when using their magic. I mentioned Xander doing that to Dad and how I noticed there's a small burst of magic when it happens. He told me about dreamsages doing that, and that Xander might be doing it subconsciously."

"Huh," Sam says. "That'd be an amazing talent, able to just fall asleep at will!"

"It would, yeah," Jake chuckles, then looks at me. "By the way, whatever turtle that came from had about as much mana as Xander, based on what I can tell. And he was calling it a big turtle, but it has gravity and enhancement magics inherent to it, not from him enchanting it. So it was probably at least as big as I am in my real form."

"Argh!" I exclaim. "He's gotta stop gifting me stuff like that! It's too expensive!"

"To Xander," Jake chuckles. "That's just another thing to eat."

While unfortunate, it's also true. And I'm not going to take the necklace off just because it's probably worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Xander made it himself just for me.

I need to figure out something I can make to gift him, too. Hopefully, I'll have something ready by the Christmas party next weekend. And I still need to figure out what I'm getting him for the Festival of Frost, too. The things for the rest of my friends were easy, but I just keep coming back to food for Xander.

"Hey, guys?" I ask. "What do you get or make for someone who can get and make whatever he wants on his own?"

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